Legionnaires' Bacteria Found In VA Ice Machine

This micrograph depicted details seen in a lung tissue specimen from a Knoxville patient with fatal pneumonia due to Legionnaires’ disease.

Credit Wikimedia Commons

A small amount of the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease was found in an ice machine at the C.W. Bill Young VA Medical Center, the Tampa Bay Timesreports. The ice machine was in the same building where a pneumonia patient who tested positive for the bacteria died on Feb. 20. Several samples were taken in various parts of the hospital to test for the bacteria and 11 other samples were negative, with one other pending, the Times reports. The VA has not said the patient with pneumonia had contracted Legionnaires' disease.